“A group of women who proudly represent Montgomery County as elected officials at the local, county and state levels of government” (as they describe themselves) signed on to a letter to the Inquirer that accused the newspaper of “showing a double standard when it published a piece labeling two women who are running to be county commissioners — Jamila Winder and Kimberly Koch — as political opportunists.”
State Sen. Amanda Cappelletti, State Rep. Mary Jo Daley, Montgomery County Clerk of Courts Lori Schreiber, Abington School Board Director Melissa Mowry, Abington Township Commissioner Julia Vaughn, Cheltenham School Board Director Julie Haywood, Conshohocken Council President Colleen Leonard, East Norriton supervisors Ashley DiPiero and Laura Rivera, Hatfield Constable Corinne Landauer, Norristown Councilwoman Tiffani Hendley, Pottstown Mayor Stephanie Henrick, Pottstown School Board Director Deborah Spence, West Norriton Commissioner Roseanne Milazzo, Whitpain Constable Robin Tarzia, Whitpain Supervisor Michele Minnick, and Norristown Area School District directors Marissa Dell, Monica D’Antonio and Sharon Hale Mauch – all signed the letter.
Read the article that led the Group of Elected Officials to accuse the Inquirer of showing a double standard. You will not find the expression, “political opportunists.” However, you will find some statements of fact that Cappelletti, Daley, Schreiber, etc., would prefer that the Inquirer had not mentioned.
For example, The Democratic Party committee tasked with recommending Arkoosh’s replacement interviewed more than 20 candidates and initially tapped Danielle Duckett, the Lower Gwynedd Township supervisor and policy director for State Rep. Chris Rabb, to serve the remainder of Arkoosh’s term. But the party ultimately rescinded the offer. It wasn’t entirely clear (emphasis added) why, but party officials asked Duckett about her bankruptcy filing 20 years ago when she’d been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
And In February, the hundreds of rank-and-file members who make up the Montgomery County Democratic Committee rebuked leadership by declining to endorse its full slate of preferred candidates, citing heavy-handed leadership and an opaque process.
The Inquirer also noted that After Democrats won control of the Lower Gwynedd Board of Supervisors in 2021, Clarke and another attorney got lunch with Duckett and her fellow supervisors.
I said, ‘So if it’s all right with you, I’d like to make my pitch. And I made my pitch about how we’re good Democrats,” Clarke recalled.
Clarke told the supervisors about the firm’s experience advising municipalities on matters such as antidiscrimination ordinances and contracting rules favored by labor unions.
A few days later, Clarke sent an email thanking the supervisors for “indulging me as I ‘made my pitch’ a few times during our lunch.”
But Duckett and her fellow Democrats broke from local tradition — they reappointed solicitor Neil Stein, who had been hired in 2020 under the previous Republican majority in a bipartisan vote.
The Group of Elected Officials was particularly upset about this – which appeared in the same Inquirer article -While Winder is the only candidate with an official party endorsement, Koch also has backing from some party insiders and the Rudolph Clarke attorneys who hosted her March fundraiser.
A teacher who was elected Whitpain Township auditor in 2017 and supervisor two years later, when Democrats won a majority on the board, Koch has benefited from a relationship with the firm since her first successful race.
During that time, Clarke and his firm gave money and legal services to a political action committee affiliated with local Democrats, including Koch.
The Group of Elected Officials hasn’t denied any of the Inquirer’s claims about Winder and Koch; instead, they call attention to what they allege are the equal or even worse shortcomings of Noah Marlier and Neil Makhija (candidates the Inquirer endorsed for County Commissioner). According to The Group of Elected Officials, the Inquirer should have also noted the vices of Marlier and Makhija, and because they didn’t, therein lies the double standard.
The point of the Inquirer article that seemed to have been missed by The Group of Elected Officials is that their criticism is not aimed at Winder and Koch. The target of The Inquirer’s criticism is the process that created Winder/Koch, and the people behind the curtain who pulled the levers of power in the Montgomery County Democratic Party, that resulted in the Winder/Koch Slate.
So what was the process?
Well, that’s the thing. The only ones who know what the process was have steadfastly refused to divulge what it was.
As they shroud themselves in secrecy (we don’t even know who the deciders were), we can only speculate as to why they decided to dump Danielle Duckett in favor of Jamila Winder.
- Was it her bankruptcy 20 years ago?
- Was it her association with State Rep. Chris Raab that might have alienated her from one or more labor unions?
- Was it her participation in Lower Gwynedd’s decision not to fire one law firm in favor of another?
- Was it all of the above?
- Was it none of the above?
Some day we might know the answer to the question, but for now, the ones who know aren’t talking.
